A Normal Family
by Loki's brat
Summary: Just a normal day at Stark Tower; early mornings, coffee, pizza, bad jokes, superheroes, etc. Normal is a relative term. Contains everyone.


There is one thing everyone at Stark Tower can agree on: Fury is insane. Only Fury would plan a meeting at seven a.m. We all had to be out of bed at quarter to six. Oh joy. It's six a.m. and we're all clustered in the kitchen. Tony's making coffee, still half-asleep and muttering incoherently. Bruce sits at the island quietly nursing a cup of tea. Clint and Natasha are munching coffee beans and making eggs. Well, Natasha's making eggs, Clint's juggling them. Thor is digging through cupboards in a quest for Pop-Tarts. My sister, Hailey, is leaning on Steve, who is the only one fully awake. "Your shirt is so softy." Hailey croons, making Steve's eyes go as big as saucers. At that moment Loki walked in; rubbing his face. "Why must we rise at such an ungodly hour?" he grumbled, stifling a yawn. "It's not ungodly, you're up." Hailey retorted matter-of-factly with a smile, causing Tony to choke on his coffee. Thor's booming laugh reverberated from the depths of a cupboard. Loki smirked and nodded. "Tony?" Bruce gestured to the coffee maker, which was growling and spluttering. "F***!" Tony cursed loudly, hitting the malfunctioning machine. "Language!" Steve reprimanded sharply. "Whatever, Cap." Tony retorted as headed downstairs to grab his toolbox. Fifteen minutes later Tony had the coffee maker working perfectly and all the adults were beginning to wake up. "Mocha. Drink." Tony ordered, shoving mugs towards Hailey and me. "Thanks." we yawned in unison. "Clint! Stop juggling the forks!" Natasha yelled as Hailey and I grabbed plates and helped Clint set the table. Breakfast was relatively quiet. There were no explosions, magical mishaps, or panicked SHIELD agents as is so often the case. Breakfast was fine, the problem arose after that. "How long does it take to get shoes on?!" Tony asked, clearly exasperated. "You don't have your coat on." Natasha pointed out calmly. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Tony retorted, his sarcasm not up to its usual standard this early in the morning. "What?" Steve looked up from helping Hailey lace up her combat boots. "Not you," Tony groaned, "just hurry up." It didn't take much longer for everyone to bundle up, and we were soon squished in the van. Squished is not a bad thing; there's snow on the ground and the van is absolutely freezing for the first couple blocks. There are three rows of bench seats in the van. From left to right, front to back, starting with the driver we sit in this order: Tony, Natasha, Clint, Thor, Hailey, Steve, Bruce, Loki, and me. Hailey was shivering and giggling as she cuddled the two blond superheroes. It didn't take long to get to SHIELD, we were early, and settled around the table in the conference room. "Knock knock." Hailey grinned. "Who's there?" Fury asked as he entered. "Panther." Hailey replied happily. "Panther who?" Fury asked suspiciously. "Panther no panth, I'm going swimming!" Hailey laughed loudly. Fury glared, Steve and Thor chuckled, Clint and Natasha smiled, Bruce and Tony grinned, Loki and I smirked. "If you're finished telling jokes, let's get down to business." Coulson suggested as he walked in. "This isn't kindergarten; so shut up and listen." Fury snarled as he moved to the front of the room. The next five hours were spent sitting through lectures. I say "sitting through" because as I glanced around I noticed that, although we were supposed to be taking notes, Tony and Bruce were passing sheets of diagrams and formulas back and forth, Clint and Natasha were having a conversation in ink and expressions (Clint was also giving himself pen tattoos), Steve and Hailey were drawing (Hailey was drawing Steve), Thor was writing and rewriting what looked like a love letter, what Loki was writing might have been a memory of camping with Thor when they were younger, I was trying to calm down enough to write detailed descriptions of the Avengers (because I could). The lectures ended abruptly when Steve's stomach growled. "Lunch break!" Tony announced as he stood up. Fury snarled, "Sit down, Stark." "I'm pretty sure you don't have probable cause to keep any of us here, especially Captain Goody-four-shoes," Tony countered, making Steve blush slightly, "so we'll see you after lunch- pizza ok with everyone?" We all nodded and mumbled our agreement as we packed up our "notes". A few minutes later we were headed down the street in a highly disorganized cluster. That is, until Clint started goofing around. "Quick march! Left, left, left right left!" He yelled, fully expecting Steve to comply and laughing when the rest of us did too. That's how all nine of us ended up marching into the pizza place. We found a table in the back and ended up laughing over pizza and soda. It was like a lunch scene from a high school movie. (But not Mean Girls.) We were gone for over an hour; Fury and Coulson were livid. "I expected you all to be responsible and you go off base for hours." Fury growled. "It was only about an hour, lighten up, Nick." Tony corrected. He was not helping. "We're sorry, Sir, but it was a valuable opportunity for team bonding." Steve placated. Coulson looked slightly less hostile. Fury, on the other hand... "Sit. Down." he commanded. We all scurried into our seats, ready for hours of training videos. Coulson turned the projector on and the lights off as he and Fury left the room. Maybe it was the warm, dark room, maybe it was the coffee wearing off; whatever the reason, no one was extremely awake. It started with Clint resting his chin in one hand, Natasha soon followed, palming one cheek. Tony gave up any pretence of being awake and put his head down on the table, Bruce shortly followed suit. Steve and Thor both rested their chins on their fists, Steve with one arm around my sister, who was sleeping on his shoulder. Loki rested his chin on the heel of his hand, the side of one finger against his lips. I tucked my arms around myself and dropped my head. "Were you all sleeping this whole time?" Fury yelled as he burst in, startling us all awake. Steve raised his eyebrows and blinked twice, giving Fury an adorably innocent look. "What time is it please, Director?" Loki asked, expertly changing the subject as he leaned over the back of his chair. "Eight p.m., and don't change the subject." Fury glared. "All right, kiddies, pack up your toys," Tony joked, "it's time for beddy-byes." "Watch it, Stark." Steve warned, lacking most of the hostility needed to keep Tony in line. Tony ignored him and herded us all down to the van as he called for Greek food to be delivered. Dinner arrived at the tower just after we did, and we all carried the boxes upstairs as Steve shared his plan for team bonding. After we ate dinner together around the table (just like a real family) it was time to put Steve's plan into action. We got into our pyjamas, brushed our teeth, grabbed a few needed items, and headed down to the living room. Once everyone had arrived JARVIS put on some old radio plays. No one payed exclusive attention to The Aldrich Family, Burns and Allen, or The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Natasha was painting her nails, Clint was fighting with a Rubik's cube, Tony was tinkering with a circuit board, Bruce was reading a science magazine, Steve and my sister had grabbed their knitting, Loki and I were crocheting, and Thor was playing solitaire. But we were together, calm and connected by the stories. For a few minutes, we were a normal family. 


End file.
